May 17, May 22, May 29, 2012

May 29, 2012

hello family,

   this week we had a fun week in stoney creek,

 we have been out visiting the ward memebers still. the ward still loves us. but now they are only feeding us like 3 or 4 days a week so we still get fed pretty well. we talked to the zone leaders and they only get like one meal a week so that is good.

    so things that happened this week. we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. it was kind of interesting. the guy i went with. didnt really care about anything....... he was also very negative about everything... he just said he was being realistic. kind of bugged me a little.

     i like being companions with elder peterson we have a lot of fun together. to describe his personality he is a lot like colton starr just a little bit more serious. so i bet you can guess how much fun were having. it is quite fun. we have been working really hard. and we are trying to work smarter. so we got a grasp on everything now we know exactly how big our area is we made a map. and we know most the ward members now there are about 80-90 active people in our ward.

    Sharron- so sharron boomed on us again this week. we heard some stories about her from the ward. they said she almost got baptised she was all dressed up in her white clothes and then right before she backed out. and just went to the brunch after her baptism.

    this week we met a friend named terry. he is about 70 years old. he is a really nice guy and loves having us come over and talk to him. this week we taught him about what the book of mormon is. he likes me and elder peterson. so he has agreed to listen to the lessons to help elder peterson learn how to teach them. so we should be going over to teach him the restoration this week. i am hoping while we are teaching him he will be able to feel the spirit and want to change his life. he isnt interested in being converted but is curious about what we believe.

    yeah our apartment is finally clean. and we have everything organized. yeah it only takes us about 8 minutes to walk to lake ontario. today it is p- day so we are planning to go swimming in the lake. im excited. :) yeah it is already really hot here. it got up to about 90 degrees here last week. but i remember the advice austin gave me about getting the green bottle.  

   yeah umm that doesnt sound like the elder snealson i know. what a weany you should tell elder fielding to whip him into shape. yeah maybe he was just having a bad week or something. but it is good that he likes his trainer. elder snelson was a realy cool guy.

     my allergys kick up pretty bad once it got hot here.  yup elder peterson thinks im a drugy probably. so i have beeen taking those pills from the ziploc baggey label allergy 1 per day. and then another ziploc baggey that says nasal decongestant haha so my allregies are better now that i have found those. oh yeah and i got 5 bloody noses this week i ruined one of my new shirts.. oh well.

 

   oh man austin baker is back that awesome tell him to write me a letter or something even though i only wrote him like one.....or two....... i bet he doesnt like seeing katie driving his truck around the town...... yeah it sounds like his homecoming talk was good tell him to send it to me then i can give the same talk at my homecoming.

     it is good to hear that zach passed preschool. but said that he came to the conclusion that jimmer likes basketball more then heavenly father. we met a guy from barcelona he said that the religon there was soccer and that their god was this one player. sad to think that people will actually admit to that kind of stuff. and believe that kind of stuff.

well looks like i am running out of time.

     goodbye everyone love you,

                  Elder nick strobel.

  P.S.  Just kidding about going swimming in the lake!!

May 22,, 2012

Hey family whats up,

yeah are new apartment is nice now. it was trashed when we got here! so we have just been picking up at night. we have thrown away like 7 or 8 huge trash bags of garbage. haha i havent even finished unpacking my bags yet. but yeah we have been cleaning everything up and getting it all organized the past few days. so yeah its good to finally start feeling like we are in a clean apartment. we are all the way up on the 7th floor. one of the pictures i sent you i think is from our balcony we have a pretty good view of the city. and of the lake.      the stony creek ward really loves us they were really excited to see two new elders come in. they are inviting us to tons of things. on saturday night there was a ward party. it was a" minute to win it" party like the TV show. they were really shocked when we brought an investigator named sharon to the party. everybody wants to meet us. we have had dinner appointments  every night and even lunch appointments sometimes. so like two meals a day this past week. they were really excited to have us here. we have been leaving book of mormon at peoples houses with the questions of the soul highlighted and tabbed out. ( just some idea we had.) i dunno it is kind of funny every place we go to we ask them to give this book of mormon to someone. so far the families have always had somebody in mind. and even a few families said they would invite there friends to come over and have dinner with us.  my companions name is micheal Drake peterson. yeah i saw elder Tyler fielding at the meeting with all the other new missionaries. haha funny story is that his trainer was my companion in the MTC Elder Snelson. we were the only young guys that were there. everybody else had been out for over a year. i thought that was pretty sweet.    I am glad that you guys enjoyed meeting the Wu's it was kind of sad to say goodbye to them. i really enjoyed being with them and spending time with them and the jones family. it is nice to hear that i am going to get visitors. i guess that means that they actually liked me.     so this week we have done a lot of finding just walking around and tracting and just a ton of other stuff. i am actually a little sunburned i wont peel though. it is funny because when i look in the mirror i can see exactly were the collar of my white shirt is. so i have pretty bad tan lines or whatever.  so this week we started teaching a former investiagator named sharron. she is an afraican american lady. she is a really funny lady she likes the missionaries and we are supppose to be meeting with her again tonight. so this up coming week we are going to be doing a lot more finding.   me and elder Peterson are having a blast here we are enjoying the time here and are getting along great. well see ya everyone hope you are having fun.     Love elder nick strobel

May 17, 2012

hey mom,

how are you doing. today we are e mailing in the library. next week i will be e mailing on tuesday. yeah you found the right place the elizabeth apartments. im gonna take some pictures and send them to you stoney creek is a beautiful place. so my new companions name is elder Peterson he is from Bosie Idaho, but lived in Rigby, Idaho for his high school days. he was really big into wrestling. so he knows some of them same people that i do like christian Denny he wrestled him at state. so training is kind of weird i feel like i should still be getting trained. but yeah it is fun. so we are white washing the area. we meet with the ward mission leader and the bishop. the bishop has a nice house right next to the lake. but yeah the ward mission leader was talking to us and what not he said there hasnt been a new investigator here for 6 months....... so we have a lot of work to do. we are starting from square one. we pretty much can choose wherever we want to start. haha it is kind of a challenge. but president Scott e-mailed me today as well it was really good to hear from his e mail. just from what he said i am not worried about anything.   yeah elder johnson is staying in Brantford with a new missionary as well. im glad you liked the pictures if i could tell sister jones thank you i would. mmm im pretty sure the wu's have a lot of pictures of me that they want to show you. im so excited that you guys get to meet them. just tell them that i am gong to miss them a lot. and you can also tell the jones family im going to miss them to. especially faith.... haha you should ask sister jones how she is doing with the new missionary. its a lot easier to be myself here.... im still the social butterfly ive always been. nobody here will ever call me quiet.                          Love Elder Nick Strobel

April 30, May 7th and May 14, 2012

May 14, 2012

dear family,

  this week i have so awesome news! so last night it was like 10:32 and me and elder johnson were like yess we didnt get transfered. but then the phone rang and it was president scott. elder johnson answered the phone and president scott asked to talk to me. i was like oh man what did i do this time. but yeah here is the good news im going to be a trainer next transfer!!!!! some different news is that im going to be whitewash training.... president said that we will be opening the area called stony creek! im super pumped and excited! well also super scared i dunno what to do haha guess i will just have to wing it. im pretty good at making things up. so i was thinking about it last night i dont even know how to do transfers....... then i was like i dunno know how to train a new missionary..... then i was like man were whitewashing so that means were not going to know anybody...... sounds to me like a fun adventure! going in to try a lot of new things.

my new address is

90 king street east apt# 707

stoney creek, ontario

L8G-1K7

Canada      

 the skyping thing: last night was really awesome i loved seeing everyone especially kandis(thanks for inviting her over). i hope that mom had a good mothers day. haha and i know that she loves the mother days present that becca and spencer made her. the build a bear bear that has the talking voice just like me when you squeeze it.it was wonderful to talk to everyone and to see bens man boobs multiple times. so i dont have that much time today because i need to go say goodbye to everyone. but since my new companion will be brand new i will beable to email you again on thursday, my usual long e-mail.i love you guys

Love elder nick strobel.

May 7, 2012

hello everyone.

     I GOT YOUR PACKAGE THIS MORNING.it was really nice to get it. i started eating the carmeleata bars they are really good. elder johnson says thanks for the balckhead popper.he is glad that i got it while i was here. he is pretty positive that we arent going to be companions next transfer. he says president had his eyes on you while we were at the leadership meeting. oh well i doubt it im pretty sure we are going to be together for at least one more. but who knows really.  oh so i really liked the little ewok from lego land. it is nice to have. thank you so much for the package i thoguht i was stupid because i couldnt find the letter inside i looked through it twicethen i gave up. but i guess that you forgot to put one in there.     

   hey mom this sunday i get to talk to you over skype ! sister jones will be calling you this sunday to set up the times to skype you guys so you will be able to talk to her for a while if you want. yeah i sent the big long e-mail to you and austin because for some reason my e-mail doesnt like sending things to you. so i decied to send it to both of you. the dear mom guess what e-mail  was about the wu's going to salt lake and them wanting to see you.      

   im glad zach knows how to find a lost helicopter i tried that but it didn't work out to well it was just lost im pretty sure the neighbors dog got ahold of it. yeah and austin didnt tell me the t-rex story yet. 

   when i went on exchanges with the zone leaders i went to kitchener. the zone leaders are elder wilson and elder ni. this past week i went on exchanges with elder wade. funny stroy about elder wade. Is that his first name is wade too. so his name is wade wade. that cause his parents separated and his mom married someone with the last name of wade. this upcoming week is elder wades last week in the mission. so my last to exchanges have been with very old missionaries. his companion is elder wooding elder wooding is from england. also there are chinese elders their names are elders lee and elders yu. so on the name tags you can now put your first intial on them and elder yus first name is ben. so all hsi nametags now say elder B.Yu. it is kind of funny i think. also there are 4 sisters in our district. there names are hermana's fatheringham and ence- both from utah. also there are the ysa sisters. their names are sister tsai and tervaveil. sister tsai came out at the same time as me we flew in on the airplane together. 

   also this last week i went to a leadership meeting. it was a very uplifting meeting. and i got to talk to president and sister Scott again. i talked to the AP's and elder Sommerfeldt says hello. he lives in the same house as the AP's. 

     i have gotten my pillow and my other towel back it is quite nice to have them back. also i finish the book of mormon last wednesday. so it took me about 5 weeks to read it all. and guess what i am starting it again. 

   its nice to here about the family. i bet that zach is really excited to go to school. but i bet that you are sad because now all you kids will be at school. kandis tells me that zach doesnt talk different anymore. oh man thats sad. tell katie congratulations from me for being cheer captian. i was suprised she even made the team letalone cheer captain. man those other girls must be terrible.... haha just kidding. oh man chuck is bringing his themes to the next level. tell ben to BRING THE HAMMER. man i cant believe i missed that. austin finally graduated college. here people call college university. if they say college they consider that high school or something like that. i dunno it is werid. 

   Wu's- this week was a really good week with the wu's. this week i played the piano with george. i would play a song out of a level one book. it would take me like 2 or 3 times to get it right. but once i got it right george would play it right after me perfectly. guess all those years of piano lesson paid off. also we taught george a little about baptism. he wants to get baptised in may and he told me that because im special he wants me to baptise him.    Wallborne- Phil has been reading the book of mormon, really actively. he made a promise to himself that he would finish reading it before he would get baptised. he has been reading an hour a day. but that wont be enough time for him to be done by may 13. so we are going to have to move his baptism back a few weeks. 

   this week we started teaching Bob langlois. his wife is a memeber but he isnt. he has agreed to hear the lessons. we kind of tricked him into hearing them. he agreed to help me learn the lessons and he is going to critize me after each one to help me learn. it made his wife really happy that he was willing to do that.

    joe licthey- joe has made leeps and bounds. he has come to church the past two weeks. and is learnign a lot. me and elder johnson are trying to convince him to go on a mission.

    i love reading the little stories about zach. he is a very funny kid. i really miss that little guy.

   well the mission is doing great. this next week will probably be one of the best weeks in the mission. we have a lot of stuff planned for this week.

   i love you all( dad mom austin caitlyn becca kandis katie ben jake matt james and zach) 

Elder Nick Strobel

dear dad,
yeah i finished the book of mormon on wednesday. but yeah i am starting it again. it is funny that you said my patriarchal blessing will be my guide. because i was just looking over that this morning. it is really awesome. it is a great guide for my life. and i am starting to see things come true in there and am starting to make things come true in there as well. its true the adversary is attacking you from all sides. something someone told me was that the closer to the light you get the bigger your shadow is. hence the stronger and stronger you are in the gospel the more the adversary tries to bring you down. the bigger path of evil that is behind you trying to pull you down. pretty cool analogy i thought. well dad just know i love you and am proud to call you my father.
                                     love elder nick strobel




April 30, 2012


hello everyone,
the mission is going good im learning new stuff everyday.
     so this week i was flying my remote control helicopter around my house. and our house isnt that big so i kept hitting the walls. so i decided to take it outside and fly it around. i took a step outside and launched the helicopter up full blast. it was going above our house and flying pretty good. than i huge gust of wind came along and blew it over over house. i went around looking for it but couldnt find it in any of our neighbors backyards. so to end the story quickly i lost my helicopter oh man i was super bummed it was fun to fly around
at night.
    so last week when we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. i left all my stuff down there. like my pillow, and my blanket, and my toletery bag. haha so last week i had no pillow! hahaha i just used my towel. but i just bought a new toothbrush and tooth paste and normal shavers. so this past week i shaved with normal razors. but i like using my electric shaver still.
    also this transfer i started the book of mormon over again. right now i am on page 452. so next week i should be able to finish it.
   RC-
   Wu's- the wu's are doing good they are loving church. and are making a lot of friends i think. did you not get my email that said they are coming to salt lake? (this is the email. dear mom guess what! john and amy wu are going down to salt lake May17 18 and 19. they were really excited when i said my family was only going to be 3 and a half hours away. they said they want to meet you guys. they might go down to idaho falls just to see you guys! but if that doesnt work out maybe you could meet them up in salt lake one of those days. they are really excited and want to meet you guys. so in the next e mail to me maybe tell me you interest about doing this. i
think it would be amazing..... tell me what you think of the idea???)
     kira- this week we had to say goodbye to kira. the whole ward missed him at church this week. he had really become part of the ward family. everybody just loves him. this week we dropped him off a preach my gospel and just went over on how to use it with him. we also realised he didnt have a doctrine and covenants. so we have gotten him on of those and dropped it off.
      millers- the millers were at church this week. they have been coming regularly and are doing pretty well. matthew loves coming to church to hang out with his primary friends.
     wallborn's- this week the wallborns were at church. phil has been reading his book of mormon. he has set aside an hour a day to finish it before his baptism. he is a really amazing guy. when he sets his thoughts on something he works on it until he completes it. i just hope he will be able to finish it by march 13th. he is a great guy and will be such a blessing to have him and his family in the brantford ward.
     Dallas- this week dallas came to church. he is an 18 year old kid. and is just really curious about all religon. he understands and comprehends everything prefectly. he is a very smart kid. he understands things so well that he usually even forsees the deep doctrines in everything. to give an example. when we were teaching him
about the plan of salvation and talking about the three kingdoms of glory. and told him about the celestial kingdom and how you would be able to learn forever here. he asked since someone could learn forever would they one day be able to become gods.
    Michialina- this week we started teaching michialina. she is an 18 year old girl and she wants to find a church for herself. she is looking into religion and wondering about which chruch to join. she couldn't come to church this week because every other weekend she goes up to her dads house to stay.
    crystal- this week we picked up a former investigator. her name is crystal she met with the missionaries a lot about 2 years ago. she is starting to want to come back to church. she is starting to want to change her lifestyle. she was to have a family someday. and to have a church to bring them to.
    also, we are working with a kid named joe lichtey he is a member but hasnt been active in the church for a long time. he is 20 years old and we are teaching him with the childrens book of mormon stories.
    oh yeah- well i know if you put this up on facebook the jones family will be reading it. so a quick little shout out to them brother and sister jones are pretty cool i guess. they did give us new music this week. and we really like the new CD.
    well things here are going great im loving the mission.
                                           love your favorite missionary
                                                         Elder Nick Strobel

April 23, 2012

hello family and friends.

this week was a really great week.    wus- this week the wus came to church. and george wanted to goplay the organ. i sat by them and kira during sacrament. george lovesthe sacrament prayers he always says its time for bread or its time for water. he is a funny little guy. his birthday is april 23 oh waitthats today........ i am gonna have to go bring him a present.   kira- this week was kiras last week at church. it was sad to thinkthat he is not going to be there anymore. the elders qourm gave him acard and wished him luck in china shanghi. he will be down there forthe summer and then he will come back up to brantford in the fall tocontinue school.  wallborns- this was an amazing lesson this week. phil wallborn ourinvestigator commited to be baptised may 13. haha on mothers day. hiswife said it would be the best mothers day present. he son alex alsosaid it would be a good idea. alex got baptised a few months ago. hehas the most amazing hair it is long and wavey. it is really cool ithink. also phils wife cynthia is pregnant so its just miracle aftermiracle in their family. it is nice to see them coming back to church. Elder Wilson also another reason why my week was so good was becauseof an elder named Elder wilson. i wnet on exchanges with elder wilsonthis week he is my zone leader. it was just and amazing experience. itwas one of those experiences that will change my mission. he gave mesome advice but mainly just led by his example. he taught me twoimportant principals. each missionary needs a willingness to learn,and be quick to observe.  if they are going to be a sucessfulmissionary their whole mission. i learned a lot form him. it is a sadthing that he is going home in about three weeks.    it is going be sweet to have tyler fielding here in the missionfield having another missionary from idaho falls that i know. it wouldbe sweet if one day we could be companions. if that happened we mighthave a little too much fun. its nice to see and hear all my friendsfrom the ward are preparing for their mission. is ryan taggert sendingin his papers? has he gotten his mission call? oh wow it is  crazy tothink i have already been out 83 days. thats quite awhile im almostnot a newby anymore. haha i still feel like i am learning how to evenbe a missionary.  mmmmm about the shirts umm i think 18 1/2 would be best but im notsure... both of them work. mmm the sun has gone into hiding this weekthe ward said that it will be about 5 degrees celesus thats a prettybig drop because it has been really warm latley. but yeah this week issuppose to be a cold week again.  it is good to hear that you guys love and miss me.p.s. i love hearing zachs little funny qoutes.i love you all (dad mom austin caitlin becca kandis katie ben jakematt james and even zach)                                  love elder nick strobel.

April 16, 2012

Dear family,

this week was a great week!

wus- this week we went over to the wu's house. it was qutie fun and

funny! we started the new member lessons with them and they enjoied

it. also you remember those little battery powered cars me and becca

used to have as kids. well george has one and it is a little jeep. we

went on a walk with him he is a pretty good driver he didnt run into

anything. he always turns when you tell him to turn and stop when you

tell him to stop. he is great at listening. the he follows all our

driving directions was pretty amazing. it showed me that he really

does trust us. it was nice. also while we were talking to him he said

he has  been practicing to be baptized! he was super excited and said

that he wanted to be baptized everyweek! also he said that i was

special and that he wanted me to baptise him.

kira- this week we met with kira and taught him about the priesthood.

this sunday he got the priesthood. he is doing amazing and is getting

along perfectly with the ward.

phil wallborn- phil is a really awesome guy he has taught me some

stuff about the book of mormon and he is our investigator.

dallas- this week we started teaching a kid named dallas. he is a

teenagers an we taught him the plan of salvation. he is a really smart

kid. just after 4 days he has read all of 1st nephi.

alingham family- this week we have been getting to know the allingham

family. that moved into our ward. they are a referal from other

missionaries. this week we plan to start teaching them again.

    hey tell james congratualtions on the two touchdowns! i hope him

and jake just love playing football i know that i had a lot of fun

there and was able make a lot of friends, but also learn alot about

life. you should show them 'the boys of fall' music video i remember

that one being pretty good.

     tell zach that i am not being a bad missionary i am doing

everything im suppose to and even more. haha they are going to

legoland they are going to get a lot of legos there. and i wont be

able to make them.... hahahahahaha. also tell zach that kandis wants

to come and see him soon.

     it is good to hear about Jak Yonke i have hung out wiht him

quite a few times in high school. oh yeah thats sweet it will be sweet

to see tyler here when he comes out on the mission. it is a really

great place to serve a mission.

     oh yeah you should send me my short sleve shirts it is getting

really hot and humid lately! haha and yesterday me and elder johnson

realised we didnt have an air conditioner! Hahaha

i love mom and dad and austin and caitlin and becca and kandis and

katie and ben and jake and matt and james and zachary.

                                     love elder nick strobel

Nick's email April 9, 2012 and April 10,2012

april 9th
hello everybody,
so i only got one e-mail this week from uncle brian(thank you)......it
was nice to hear from him. i really liked that stroy about the
baptisms. it was kind of funny dont worry i wont do that!
well dang im kinda sad nobody wanted to e-mail me.
guess what else i realised this morning i have been out for 10 weeks!
i strating thinking about it and than i realised that i am 1/10 done
of my mission. i got to thinking that theres 52 weeks in a year times
2 is a 104 divid by 10 equals about 1/10. boy is time flying by i feel
like i just barely came out like last week.
 so this week was a really interesting week. so i got my new companion
and everything. it was super tough getting a new companion i dunno i
guess it was jsut werid like my new best friend elder sommerfeldt was
leaving and i had some random new guy come in. i dunno i guess it just
kind of felt like it was just me by myself.
so this week was kind of interesting
   this week i had my first bible bashing experience. it was a
ctually pretty cool and pretty fun to bash with a jehovahs witness. me
and elder johnson also got to hear a man play his gutair for us it was
pretty cool and almost funny how people can get so into their music
and sing about god so in depth. haha but yeah we had a  really cool
experience just with talking to this guy.
  kira- kira was confirmed this week. it was another one of those
amazing experiences where you could  just feel the spirit so strongly!
brother hampshire the 93 year old guy set kira apart and gave him the
holy ghost. it was really cool during this he said that kira would be
a missionary to the world. this was really cool because kira has
really shown a lot of interest in teaching the gospel to his parents.
he is an amazing kid except he wont be in brantford for much longer.
at the end of this month he leaves for china he is going back to his
homeland in shang-hi. here i think he will have an oppertunity to
influence thousands of people with the gospel. he is on the path and
has the potentical to do a lot of amazing things to push the work
forward in china.
   wu's- this week was another great week with the wu's they are an
amazing family i just love being with them. it has gotten to the point
to where when i am there i feel as if i am home. george is awesome.
even though he is blind he still acts like a normal 7 year old boy.
just running around jumping on stuff climbing around everything. he is
a wonderful kid. he pretty much considers me part of the family, just
like his big brother. his mom says that everyday he asks when is elder
strobel coming over. jack wu the 10 year old also loves it when we
come over because that means he has somebody to play basketball with
or to show off his hockey trophies to. his team won the championships
for  their league. katherine is the 11 year old girl she is probably
the best figure skater i have seen in my whole life. her parents
showed us the video camera of her skating preformance. she looked just
like one of those people that could be in the olympics. she won best
skater under 12. and beat out other girls that have been skating their
whole lives. she was good their were only 2 girls that were better
than her and they were both seniors in high school. also this week the
wu's had an amzing experience in their life john wu got the aronic
priesthood. john is really good at basketball and he is going to come
play with us today at the church.
   phil walbourne- has been coming to church quite  frequently. he
is really awesome. i dunno if i told you this already but since he and
his wife have been coming to church that have received a lot of
blessings. one of those being that cynthia his wife was pregnant.
cynthina is a member of the church but phil isnt yet. this week we
will be going to go visit him sometime. and try to get him ready to be
baptised.
  elder johnson- elder johnson is a pretty cool guy he is about 24
years old. he has been out for over a year. he had to go home and then
come back out for medical issues. which i know of but dont really
wanna say because it is akward to talk about.he is from branwell
alberta. something really cool is that his girlfriend is waiting for
him and has been waiting for him for over a year! gives me a little
hope that kandis could wait for me. his girlfriend sends him all those
cool packages and love notes and what not. its really cool to see! me
and him are going to be thinking of some cool things that we can send
our girlfriends! hahaha oh yeah another thing he is doing is kroshaing
a blanket for his girlfriend! haha it is really funny to see him doing
that.
  well i hope everything is going alright at home. and i love all you guys.
                                                             love
elder strobel.


April 10, 2012
dear mom(ill probably send this to austin because for some reason he
gets my emails the fastest.)
I REALLY LIKED SEEEING ALL THE PICTURES OF THE FAMILY AND ........
THAT KID NAMED SPENCER THAT YOU SENT ME.
sorry this is kind of short but i dont have much time to email today
maybe just 30 minutes!
umm but today was amazing i got a random package in the mail from
someone it had chocolates and treats in it. it was from a local
company here in town but it doesn't say who it was from. so maybe
whoever sent it to me could tell me! whoever sent it thank you. :)
also sister jones gave me an easter basket! it was really cool it came
with this really nice silver and pink tie.
 today also we had interviews with the mission president! it was
quite amazing it was wonderful just to talk to president scott. he is
a great man and is very inspiring. it was wonderful to see him again
it is kind of cool because i have seen him a lot more than everybody
else in my district! i just love seeing him and sister scott. also
since he came he brought the mail from the office! so i got the
package you sent the only problem is that we have just been so busy
today that i havent been able to open it yet! it looks like something
nice and big! :0
 elder sommerfeldt got transfered to brampton. he is about an hour
and 20 minutes away. i probably wont be able to see him anytime soon.
his new house is called the mission mansion. he moved up to zone
leader and lives with the ap's right next to president.
  elder johnson's story goes like this about his girlfriend. he got
sent home early for a medical issue and he wasnt planning on coming
back out. he started dating this girl named kyile for like 3 years.
they went ring shopping and were about to get engaged when elder
johnson got the feeling he should go back out on his mission. so that
probably why i made it sound like he was way into her. i just guess it
was the first thing we bonded with is that we both have girlfriends
that we love.
things i need to be sent to me
1. so it is like 80 degrees here so i kind of already need my short
sleve shirts it would be nice if you could send those to me.
2. also i told elder johnson able that blackhead popping tool. if you
can find those things you should send two of them.
oh yeah tell john and jan and austin and his wife and becca and kandis
and katie and ben and jake and matt and james and zach that i love
them! :)
  p.s. i liked to make it akward when i mention austins and beccas
signifacant others........
                                                        love elder strobel

Nick's Email April 2, 2012

april 2nd 2012
dear family and friends,
this week was quite good conference was wonderful. yet it was quite
long i had to sit through the sessions at church in my church clothes.
conference is like two hours later here than it is back home. so some
exciting news about transfers is that elder sommerfeldt is leaving and
going zone leader even though he has only been out 9 months. so my new
companion is elder johnson he is from the alberta provence as well. so
pretty much all i have heard about is that he is 24 and is 6 foot 7 so
he is taller then me didnt think that would ever happen. but i guess
it has. oh yeah i got your package like a week after you sent it i
guess i forgot to mention that in my email i really loved getting it!
i just love getting mail from everyone! i love getting letters from
you guys and from kandis. it is really nice to hear about everyones
life. i enjoy it. tell katie congratulations about the pagents! she
made a ton of money for school that is sweet. whoa i totally forgot
that he was that old. tell him i am happy he has made the choice to
get baptised. umm since you sent the other package to the mission home
it might take two or three more weeks to get here. remember whentn
that one guy brrowed austins easter bucket. well  i say that if he is
there to stay then he can use my bucket.
   the wu's the wu famioly is doing great the really enjoied
conference but we kind of need to teach them about the phophet thomas
s monson. thats big on the list for them. we are trying to get the new
member lessons ready for them with our ward missionaries. those are
the next big things for the wu's everybody loves them a ton! elder
sommerfeldt is going to be super sad when he says goodbye to them. he
is already really worrying about that because they are a super amazing
family. all of them are qutie amazing i am really excited i still get
to get visiting with them.
  millers the millers are doing good they came to conference and they
really enjoyed it! matthew is a really funny kid i like him alot.
   kira- haha kira had finals this weekend and a few on monday so he
couldn't attend conference on saturday. on sunday he slept in way late
and wasnt able to make it because he needs to study for finals he has
to get stright a's
   Derek- this week derek was with his girlfriends family again we
are planning on him to come to church this sunday. he really needs to
so that he can get baptised.
   pedersons- the pedersons are an amazing part member family. i love
going over there. and she loves having us over there. we kind of
dropped the ball the first lesson because the very next time we met
with them she asked us what was different about our church from all
the other churches. she is an amazing lady i love going over to visit
them it is kind of like i am at home when i am over there.
   diane- this week we started teaching diane about the church! she
is super nice and has two boys that are 10 and 9 they like to play
sports so we might set up some games with other kids from the ward
with them at the church.
   so last night president called me and elder sommerfeldt right at
9:00 so we were the first ones he called about transfers. during the
phone call he said that we could get 5 or 6 baptisms here next
transfer. well i hope this is true i dunno how were gonna do it but i
really think that we can. it is gonna be fun i will keep you guys
posted. i dunno why he has so much faith in me.... on average each
missionary baptises 2 people in a whole year........ so i think its
werid that that is the average. i  guess i am quite lucky! haha i have
always been lucky my whole entire life!
   so conference was great on saturday night me and elder sommerfeldt
got into talking about forgiveness and the commandments. he said that
he forgives everyone and that he lives that commandment. i said to be
funny clearly you dont know the commandments to well becasue it says
we need to forgive all men. that includes yourself and you have a hard
time doing that. it was funny becuase the very next the the first
sunday talk from conference was about forgiveness and said the exact
same thing i said the night before. i looked at elder sommerfeldt
during the talk and said i told ya so!
 oh another cool thing that i got from conference is about vision.
that one guys talk was kind of boring. but i kind of zoned out during
it and really wondered what my vision/what my purpose was.  you have
to have a vision so i prayed to know what my vision was. i got certain
promptings to different scriptures i have never read before. first was
d&c 16 and 18, and after that d&c 42 then after that was d&c 68.... i
probably should read d&c but yeah i starting studying d&c 16 and 18
and they talk about what is worth the most in the sight of god. and it
talked about missionary work and how happy you will be if you bring
one soul into the gospel.... so i havent read D&C 42 or D&C 68... so i
will have to check those out next week. so pretty much my vision im
suppose to follow is pretty cool so far.
   sorry my email is kind of short this week but since it is
transfers elder sommerfeldt wants to say goodbye to everyone. i love
you all
                                                 love nick strobel

March 26, 2012

MARCH 26
hey everybody!
  wu's- this week i watched my first hockey game. we went to jack
wu's playoff game to get to the finals and they won. 10 year olds
palying hockey. it was quite fun george was very into the game and
just kept on asking who had the puck and who scored it was nice. even
though we were only able to stay for like 30 minutes it was still fun.
this sunday the wu's got confirmed elder sommerfeldt confirmed them
all. (by the last one his voice was out of breath and sounded really
funny.) it was a very amazing experience for the whole ward to watch
them become members of the church. george is starting to enjoy
primary. but he only likes the singing time. he loves the sister that
plays the piano. so he is starting to enjoy coming to church a little
more he just has to get used to it. because he doesnt like new things.
last night george called us on his moms phone and asked us to come
over every night this week to play bop-it with him. he went through
each night specifically to see if we had time to see him. it was quite
funny when his mom figured out that he had called us.
   Millers- this week the millers got confirmed as well. brother
hampshire confirmed them.(he is the 93 year old guy that comes out
teaching with us) it was a really amazing experience. it was
wonderful.
  Kira- this week me and elder sommerfeldt had an amazing experience
with kira. we went and taught him a lesson and asked how he felt
during the wu's baptism. he said he had felt the spirit really
strongly. (this was the first time he had admitted to us he had felt
the spirit.) he said he believed everything and wanted to be baptised
but he couldn't because his parents wouldnt support him.(his parents
in chinia were paying for his school.) he has done a lot of study in
the church and has read the whole gospel principals book. so we told
him to skype his parents that night and tell them that he had made the
decision to be baptised and if they would support him. we told him
also to make a list of how the church has helped him. and tell them.
his parents said they would support him. this sunday he was BAPTISED.
we had a chinesse elder come to our ward this week and kira was
baptised in chinese. it was an amazing experience. it is cool to think
that the holy ghost can work in any language! it was wonderful our
ward loved it. our ward is now on fire. and are all super excited to
do missionary work.
    derek- is still progressing slowly he is just waiting for his
girlfriend to come around. but we will be meeting with him this week.
and trying to get him to come to church.
   haha yeah it is good that sister jones is e-mailing you. she is
kind of like a suragate mother out her. she is really nice and i love
going out there. she helped us a lot with our baptisms. she planned
refreshments, and printed the programs. her and her husband do a lot
of us missionaries and we are really grateful for them.
thats sweet that katie got first runner up! i bet becca hates that
because she is super competitive. and katie did better then her. haha
Zach is pretty smooth with the ladies. i bet kandis enjoyed seeing you
guys i am glad you invited her over i am pretty sure she told me she
wanted to see you guys just didnt know when she could come over.
kandis lovces zach probaly even more then me. she is only dating me so
that she can spend time with him. Of course kandis looked good! she is
my girlfriend! tell katie good luck in her next competition form me.
what stores are here is brantford. we have a walmart, and a zheurs(
its very simular to albertsons) i have only eaten at three resturants
they are Wendy's, A&W i had a good rootbeer float, and subway.
oh yeah i kind of got food poisoning last week. but i am good now!
i am loving it here in brantford- the mission is going great.
i love you all (Grand-parents, aunts and uncles, john jan austin
Caitlyn becca kandis katie ben jake matt james and even zach (even
though he is trying to steal my girlfriend!)

March 19, 2012

MARCH 19 letter
hey everyone my mission is going amazing. this week has been such a blast.
  Taylors- me and elder sommerfeldt went to the indian reservation.
with terry and judy taylor. it was way fun at the res we taught about
4 lesson and were able to learn about some native american stories
those were pretty cool. the taylors are and amzing couple they are
both half natvie american and they are kind of like are mission
grandparents here. brother taylor said that he really liked me he said
that i could just attract people to me. he said that he quite enjoied
being with me and that he would like to spend the whole day with us.
it was really nice to meet this couple.
 miller family- this week we taught the miller family. it was quite
an amazing experience because deanna didnt think she would be ready
for baptism by april1st and she wanted to move her date back. we were
able to talk to her and told her she was ready to get baptised this
week. and amazingly she agreed. we still had to teach her son matthew
all the lessons so we met with them like 4 times this week. deanna is
a very shy person-even more shy then kandis! she doesnt like to show
her emotions at all. but this week while we were teaching mathhew we
bore our testimonies and during mine she started to cry it was quite
and amzing experience. at the end of our lesson matthew asked me to
baptise him. it was super awesome. this sunday the millers werent at
church at the begininng me and elder sommerfeldt were really worried
the devil had gotten to them. so we drove over to their house. when we
got there their car was there so we knew they were home. we rang their
doorbell and they didnt answer for awhile. matthew came to the door
and we realised that they had slept in this morning. and his mom was
still getting ready for church. we were relieved. after church we had
the baptisms. out of all of them me and matthew had to go first i was
super nervous that i was gonna mess up! (this was a big deal because
our bishop, stake president, and mission president scott and his wife
were there.) but i did everything perfectly i was nervous up until
matthew came out of the water. when he came up he had the biggest
smile on his face! thats when the spirit overcame me. it was powerful.
 wu's- this week we met with the wus a few times as well. they came
to church on time. and were all dressed up and ready for church even
george. it was really sweet. this week in church george was amazing he
actually participated in singing time. it was sweet. oh also as a side
note this week we watched george play the piano it was amazing he can
play some hard songs he learned by listening to his sister play and he
memorizes the song in his mind. his sister is in a level 4 book. after
i had baptised matthew i was standing at the back of the font all wet
and watched all the wu's get baptised. they were baptised by brother
de jong. it was amazing the spirit was so powerful there.
 derek- this week we ran into him and his girlfriend twice just
walking around downtown. this reminds me of how i used to be with
kandis all the time. but also we got his girlfriend to realize that
mormons were actually normal people. derek is a great investagator he
really understands and believes all the things about the gospel we
taught him the word of wisdom and law of chasity. he already does
these things... he is like perfect.
 kira- kira is another chinese investagator. he loves learning he
has already listend to al the lessons and read the whole gospel
princapals manual. he has been to church the last three weeks. but one
problem is that his parents want him to wait to get baptised. in the
chinese culture whatever the father says is final.
 so while i was talking to elder sommerfeldt the average missionary
baptizes 2 people a year.......and that 20% of the missionaries
baptize 80% of the people. i was shocked at this. i was like people
are goona be pissed at me. he was like yeah you have had more baptisms
then you have had weeks. hahaha this is our neew joke we share with
everyone. hey those picture that sister jones sent you you should send
those to everyone.i am having a blast out here all is going amazing! i
hope everyone one at home is doing great. i love hearing from
everyone. love elder strobel

March 12, 2012

hello everyone! last week went amazing. we met all the standards of
excellencce. which means were excellent missionaries. here is an
update on all the people we are teaching.
    p.s. me and my companion are only taking like half of a p-day
today so that we can go visit the wu's and deanna and matthew. we are
visiting them today because president scott is coming tomorrow to go
through the baptism interview questions with them.
    brother de jong he has a conference talk for about anything. he
also has perfect hair. it is really funny. he used to be a stake
president so he is a really awesome mission leader and really helped
us with the wu family. he is from sweeden. but moved to canada when he
was a little kid. he is a really serious guy and kind of reminds me of
president turley...
 wu's- so we went over to the wu's house with our ward mission
leader. he was able to talk to amy wu about his family and how him and
his mom were the only ones form his family that were baptized. this
was what amy wu was really worried about family issues of the rest of
her family that arent baptized. he was able to really connect with her
because he was able to explain with his own life experiences to
explain a lot to her. at the end of the lesson she said a prayer and
thanked heavenly father for sending brother de jong for helping her
with her problems. also today we are going over there to watch a video
with them. (and brother de jong) the video is called on the way home i
think.... we have a lot of appointments with them this week because
they are planning to get baptized this sunday march 18. how awesome it
is that they were willing to change to come closer to christ. here is
another story about the wu's we were teaching them about the law of
tithing and how you have to pay 10 percent of your increase. at the
end the asked us well what if we want to pay more than 10 percent and
sometimes 15-20%. that is just to show you a little more about how
amazing the wu's are.
     millers- this week the millers came to church it was the second
time they came to church. this week while deanna was in relief society
this old lady got taking about the catholic church she said it was the
great and adbominable church, and the whore of all the earth. so we
were pretty freaked out about that. but that not all that happened.
her son matthew who is 10 was in class with duncan. duncan is a little
mentally chalenged (or as people say here one fry short of a happy
meal) and he had a freak out in matthews class and started banging his
head against the wall and kicking and punching all the kids. his
teacher who is a little lady who is 63 and has cancer. took him to the
ground and pinned duncan down so he couldnt hurt any of the other
kids. mathhew our investagator took his phone out and flimmed the
whole thing. so after this eventful day at church we went over to
there house. their date was set for april 8th and deanna said that
april was kind of busy. so we talked to her about her baptismal date
and she decided on the date of march 14... since she has only been to
church twice we told her we could do it the week after. so her and her
son matthew are getting baptised march 21st. we also were able to give
both of them blessings i had the oppertunity to give matthew a
blessing. his full name is matthew joesph isiah miller smith.... with
a name like that holy cow he is amazing.
      next is Derek. we taught him the doctrine of christ this week.
(faith, repentance,baptism with athourity,holy ghost, and endure to
the end.) this lesson was really powerful he couldnt quit looking at
the diagram i drew. after a little while he said he couldn't deny it.
that was powerful he said he couldnt deny that this was true and that
the book of mormon was true. the only thing that is bothering him is
that his girlfriend is of another faith and doesnt like the mormon
church to much. he is telling her this week that he is hearing the
decussions from us.
     phil Waulbourne. phil's wife is a less active member of the
church. and his son alex who is 10 heard the disscussions and was
baptised last transfer with elder sommerfeldt. but we have been
teaching him the past two weeks. he is really excited about the
church. and his wife just figured out she was pregnant.
    Elizabeth Fowler- she dropped and doesnt want to hear form us
anymore. she just isnt ready.
   here is another cool story. while we were contacting people
downtown this lady came and talked to us. she told us that joesph
smith was burning in hell because he was and adulturer. she told us we
were both going to burn in hell for spreading a false gospel and a lie
from a nut. she kept dissing our church and wouldnt listen to us at
all. she was trying to convert us to ehr church and at the end of her
dissing us all we said was thank you for strengthing my testimony that
joesph smith was prophet. she told us that we had a demoned spirit in
our ends. elder sommerfeldt was pretty fired up and said to someone
like you the holy ghost would seem like a devil. then this random guy
asked us a question he said if you have killed someone are you going
to hell? we told him that it was not up to us to judge and it was god
who judges. the crazy lady said of course their going to hell. this
guy said a long chain of profanities to the lady and said that some
guy raped his daughter and he killed him. he just left after
that........ as we were finishing our talking to the lady she said she
was going to follow us around everywhere we go and convert the people
back to the truth. crazy thing is she did follow us for quite awhile!
hahaha
    next after last p-day our basketball had a tumor in it. it was a
really old basketball. on the drive home the sticthing in the
basketball started popping out. while on our drive back to our house
the basketball exploded in our car! it was as loud as a gun shot. it
was really funny we thought someone was shooting at us on the highway.
    last week we also went on splits this was the 2nd time ive been
on splits already. this day i was senior companion because we were in
my area. i was with elder wooding. he is from england and has been out
for a year and a half. he was a super funny guy and we had a blast.
    so my week was a ton of fun. it was really nice hearing from
everybody. and thank you for all your prayers and support. i love
hearing from everyone.
1. so could you send me my line of authority.
2.  send me my retainer.
3.oh who all are you sending my E-mails too.
4. what is colten starrs mission address?
 well i love you all and i lover hearing about how all you are doing
tell katie congrats on the cheer, ben should be pretty excited about
march madness soon, just tell everybody i love them.
              Nicholas Strobel

March 5, 2012

hello every one i am doing great and am loving my mission it is a blast. wu family-elder sommerfeldt found them before i got here. they are doing great jon wu is ready to get baptised and is waiting for his wife to be ready. george the blind kid is 7 he is pro at the bop it toy. he maxed out the score at 999 times without messing up he is an awesome kid. everybody in the ward loves them and is fellowshipping them. the wu family were suppose to get baptised on march 11th but we had to push back their date to march 18 due to a probelm with the baptismal questions.

Kira we found on the street. he really loves the family home evening with the ward singles. he is from china so he is starting to wrap his head around god. but he is loving is time at church and is really feeling the spirit. We also pick up three new investagotars this week all of them young single adults one is named derek he was super receptive to our message and already has a felling that the book of mormon is true. he asked us a lot of questions about us. he wants to do everything god tells him to. me and elder sommerfeldt got the feeling that he wanted to serve a missioneven though he isnt a member of our church yet. also we picked of two ysa girls they are both really religous in theirnondenominational church because it has a youth group. we told them about our young adults group and they are really excited to come visit it and to visit our church. Just kidding we got 4 haha we taught this girl named eunice. her dad is a pentacostal preacher and has congregations here and in england and in africa so he is gone a lot. she is a pretty proper black girl who didnt really know what she was meeting us but she said she just felt like she needed to. we gave her a book of mormon to read and she said if she knew it was true she would get baptized. we explained to her how had that would be with her family, but she said that if it was true that they would just have to understand. she has a strong spirit about her.Yeah we have a microwave but i havent used it yet. every morning i eat eggs for breakfast and then i just usually wait and eat at someones home that night. all the other elders that are in our district are super jealous that we get feed a lot. cause they only get fed once or twice a week. 

My ward is absolutly awesome there are about a 100

people there each week. except for this week we had 8 investagors at church it was crazy we were running around the whole time trying to meet with everyone! during church we gfet there early to greet all; the members and to try to get to know them. President and sister scott are super awesome sister Scott really liked the picture of our family!she really liked me because i was really good with her grand kids that were there. also i had an interview with president Scott he is a great man he is a great leader an a great example.Elder Sommerfeldt might be related to jenifer Tucker ha ha isn't that crazy! he is awesome we pretty much have the same personality. we get along really well! we are working hard and are working every minute of every day. we had about 30 lessons last week with investagors and less active members. ha ah also he is terrible with directions same as me but he has a gps in our car. i think i need to get one of those. is becca using that one she got for her birthday maybe you could send it to me...? yeah i am staying really warm i havent even used my big coat yet i just wear gloves and my rain coat and i am fine. um yeah you should send me hard copy ones so i can keep them.So just last night i was out street contacting and i met this man named tim. he really opened up to us and told us about is life story. he said that well he was gone to war in afganistan his wife had left him and moved on to another man. so when he got back he didn't have anywhere to go to and his kids still loved him but not his wife so it was awkward there. also he lost his job he was suppose to go back to. he was comtemplating one night and went for  along walk. he went on a bridge and was disscussing with god everything that had happened in his life. he was kind of praying and asking god why all these things had happened to him and if he could please hurt any less. he put hishands on the railing of the bridge getting ready to hope over the edge he looked down and inbetween his hands were the words in white paint HURT LESS. it was at that moment he said he was overcome with a feeling of joy. he said that the only time he really felt like god was there is when he went on these walks. we explained to him that it wasthe holy ghost. and told him if he would talk to the missionaries that he would have that feeling again. he really wanted that feeling and asked how long it would take and if he could have that feeling forever. it was then there on the street that we told him joesphs smiths first vision. he was touched. for some reason we asked if he was on one of his walks and he said yes. it was an amazing insidentice but the story doesnt do it justice. he lives in kingston which is out of are area but we gave the missionaries his number in kingston. 

Also i thought this would be funny to tell you but there is this 93 year old member that always comes around with us to are teaching appointments. he is really awesome and is in excellence shape he moves around like he is in his 20s he is super funny to see driveing his car becasue he is really short. haha but i really like him and he helps us teach a lot. he has a ton of wisdom he shares a lot of life stories that us missionaries dont have because we are only 19.

tell everyone i am doing wonderful! and i am loving it here me and my compainion are rocking it we are doubling the standards of excellence! and doing better then every one else in our zone! i love you all! andenjoyed reading the whole familys e mails. sorry i didnt respond backto everyones. love,elder strobel